


move on

by DepressivePotato



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Clint likes video games!, Domestic Avengers, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Oblivious Tony Stark, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Steve Rogers and the 21st Century, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, bruce's world famous curry makes an appearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:20:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24678319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepressivePotato/pseuds/DepressivePotato
Summary: Everybody tells Steve to move on. Nobody tells him how.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 5
Kudos: 194





	move on

Everybody tells Steve to move on.

The times had changed. They had a black president - _which was great_ -, phones let you call anywhere anytime, - _even though Steve had no friends to phone-,_ and smoking was apparently bad for your health. Everything was so fast; cars, planes, telephones, the internet. The news changed every second and they never seemed to run out of product. People were still evil, and politicians still lied.

His apartment is not exactly what you’d call spacious, but Steve had lived in much, much worse. He doesn't have any personal belongings, and SHIELD’s ‘Captain America’ budget seems to be a little tight, so his apartment stands empty. He goes on runs a lot, and watches the sunrise. Sometimes he thinks of Bucky, and ignores the tears burning his eyes. His grief had been bottled up for 70 years, and Steve doesn’t want to live in a world without his Bucky.

Then SHIELD grabs him and throws him to a _flying ship._

_…_

Anthony Stark lives up to Steve’s expectations; narcissistic showman with an ego bigger than his brain. He reminds him of Howard, but Howard used to warmer, whereas this man is colder than the ice block Steve went into. Steve sees the masked emotion, and thinks it’s just ego.

He has no idea that it’s hurt.

…

They say that Loki and Thor are gods. Steve just scoffs, and sees Stark smiling lightly. Their fight in the lab made Steve think that Stark was not the man for the job, but after everything they went through an hour ago, Steve feels safe with his armored friend covering his back. Maybe Stark was not the humblest man in the world, but he was more than capable of shooting _aliens_. That was all Steve needed.

…

He watches the man go into the giant black hole, and thinks it’s the end. _This is war, and in war, people die,_ he reminds himself, but the tight grip on his heart doesn’t ease. He looks up, and sees the black hole closing.

None of his friends live longer than him, apparently.

Then, by some foolish luck Steve stopped believing in years ago, he sees the red armor falling, and his breath gets stuck in his throat.

After everything that had happened, praying seems ridiculous. However, Steve murmurs a silent prayer to anyone who might be listening, and mutters a ‘thank you’ at the end. Tony’s breath is uneven and his armor is just destroyed, he looks like a mess.

Well, Steve was never perfect either.

…

Steve doesn’t have any belongings, so it’seasy for him to move to Stark Tower. Well, Avengers Tower.

The building’s big and scary, but he prefers to call it ugly. Captain America should not be scared from a building; he shouldn’t be scared of anything. The team has a silent agreement that he’s the boss, apparently, so Steve sticks to the status quo and tries to lead them. It’s not easy with Natasha threatening to stab someone every seven minutes and Tony not coming out of the garagefor days sometimes.

Steve first thinks that it’d be for the best if he left the man alone, but quickly decides he’s wrong when Wednesday happens.

Tony comes out from the lab to eat, and Steve reading a magazine about technology. The new possibilities make his head hurt, but excites him at the same time. “Hi,” he says, his voice small, not even sure if Tony heard him or not. He mostly doesn’t.

“Hey, Capsicle,” the smaller man says, surprising Steve. Steve’s breath gets stuck in his throat -which happens a lot when Tony’s around- so he decides to take a sip of his coffee to hide his excitement. It’s not very often that he finds Tony in talking manner, and when he does, it’s usually for the missions.

“What you up to?” Steve tries, hoping that the man will keep talking. He knows that he must sound weird right now, and his palms were wet with sweat already. The ruffled image of the genius usually does that to Steve.

“Not much. New widow-bite, some arrows, maybe the birdhouse Thor had wanted. He’s still stuck on the color,” Tony says, taking a bite out of the stale Chinese takeout. Steve notices a red spot forming around the packaging.

“Tony…” he starts, and quickly gets up. Tony seems confused. “You’re bleeding.”

“Oh, so that’s why I felt dizzy,” he says, much like discussing the weather, and Steve barely catches him in time as he blacks out.

…

“You didn’t have to do this,” Tony says, staring at the piping hot coffee Steve made him. The coffee looks delicious, but Tony doesn’t like to hold things, so he gestures at the table. Steve idly puts it there, and holds Tony’s forearm.

Tony feels his skin tingle where the other man touches, and he curses at himself. The scar looks deep, but it haven’t touched any bones or cut any of the important veins, so Tony counts it as a win. He had much worse, he wasn’t going to cry over a goddamn graze.

“Tony, god, this is… And you haven’t felt that?” The fact is, Tony runs too high on caffeine to actually feel things, and he was elbow-deep in this new prototype, so he wouldn’t have probably notice it if his pants caught fire. Not that it hadn’t happened. “We’re gonna have to go the medical for this…”

“No medical.” Tony says quickly, maybe a bit too quickly because Steve looks at him with worried eyes. “Too many questions, not enough sleep, they’ll alert Rhodey, really don’t need that. Look, you tended to it pretty good, it’s good as new!” He tries to move his arm, but now without his usual amount of caffeine, he can feels the hot pain coursing through his pains. He yelpes, and Steve shakes his head, holding the arm again.

“Tony, this is definitely not good, I can bandage it and stuff, but it could get infected. Please see a doctor? I’ll make sure that they don’t alert Rhodey and don’t ask any questions.”

This was way more different from the usual bickering and the cold conversations of the two, and Tony found his heart beating at his throat. _He’s trying to be nice, but why would he be nice to you?_

Tony finally finds the strength to tells him yes, but feels like it’s the weakest thing he’s ever done.

…

Steve brings Tony a chicken and a tuna sandwich because he didn’t know what Tony would like. Tony silently thanks the man, ignoring the tears prickling at his eyes. He also tries to ignore how his name sounds on his tongue, but desperately fails.

…

Tony doesn’t have a dreams often, and when he does, they’re nightmares. Not this night, though. This night, Tony sees The Captain, holding Tony, and he almost feels the heartbeat of the man. The skin is warm and hot and familiar, and Tony melts to it. The name rolls on Steve’s tongue; _Tony, Tony, Tony…_

He wakes up with morning wood and takes a really cold shower.

…

Steve tries not to be too much of a bother.

Tony’s nice enough not to say ‘get out’ when he’s in the workshop, but he feels out of place, with doing nothing but to sit on the couch and watch Tony work. Don’t get him wrong, he could watch Tony work for hours and more, but he’s pretty sure the man would kick him out if Steve keeps on staring at his back muscles.

The next time he comes down, he brings some pencils and his notebook.

Tony doesn’t kick him out, and Steve finds new art supplies by his doorstep tomorrow morning.

…

The team starts calling Steve ‘mom’ and Tony ‘dad. Steve has no idea why.

“Well, first of all, you guys bicker like an old married couple, and second of all, Clint, was that the last fucking donut?” Natasha asks, a dangerous glint on her eyes, and Steve sees the hilt of her second favorite knife.

“Language,” he says.

“Proves my point,” Natasha answers, and lunges herself at Clint. Clint, playing some video game Steve never bothered to learn the name of, yelps drastically.

“I WAS GOING TO BEAT TONY!” Clint cries, stopping the knife with his hand and dodging the other knife with the other. “I WAS SO CLOSE, NAT!”

“In your dreams, Legolas,” Tony says, sipping the coffee Steve made him a minute ago, and Steve feels a weird sensation in his chest.

_Oh, no,_ he thinks, and seriously starts to reconsider his life choices as Clint agrees to buy Nat another glazed donut.

…

The movie nights become a thing, and it is both heaven and hell for Steve.

Heaven and hell being Tony in short shorts.

Steve tries not to stare, because he was pretty sure staring at someone’s legs when they are wearing shorts is still considered rude at this century, and that person being _Tony, a man,_ makes everything so much more complicated. He focuses on the movie, and looks at the fish doing…something.

Tony yawns and stretches out his legs, nudging Bruce with them. Bruce pushes the legs and watches the movie. _If it was me,_ Steve thinks, _I wouldn’t have pushed them._

Then he realizes that this isn't probably a healthy mindset and decides to see a therapist first thing in the morning.

He allows himself to steal glances until the film ends and repeats 's _omething is very wrong with you'_ to himself. His eyes feel like they don’t belong to him anymore.

…

Days come and go, and Steve starts to think maybe he’s not so alone after all. He stopped staring at his ceiling for hours, waiting for someone to wake him up and say that this was all a joke. A world without Bucky seems but strange, but not completely empty anymore.

The Avengers become a pretty popular topic after their victory against Loki. When there are no alien invasions threatening their lives, they attend charity balls and galas, give one or two speeches, and even do PSAs and commercials. Steve wears a skintight suit, Natasha scares lots of people, Hawkeye falls asleep in most of the Q&A’s, and doesn’t wear his hearing aids on the others. Thor learns that you can’t ride a dog, and gets extremely disappointed.

Bruce doesn’t even show up. Steve doesn’t blame him.

Tony mostly carries the team on his back through the events, but Steve tries to help as much as he can. At the end of the day, he is the Captain.

He doesn’t feel like a captain much. He doesn’t want to, anyway.

…

Steve discovers that he _hates_ Tony’s press smile with a passion.

When Tony smiles, his nose creases, and his eyes gets smaller, usually snapping shut with his laughter. The genius really has the best laugh, in Steve’s opinion. It’s strong enough to light up a hundred rooms, and sincere enough to make others laugh around him. Steve sometimes hears it from another room, and finds a faint smile creeping up to his lips.

Press smile is different. It’s designed to look in control, designed to look confident. It’s nothing like the real Tony, and Steve hates is every time he sees it.

The Avengers are told to _mingle_ while Tony talked with one or two politicians. The gala was going uneventful, and Steve almost wished an alien to come out from somewhere. _Almost._

Natasha looks drunk already, but Steve can only tell because of his heightened smelling. Her posture is perfect as always, and she quickly scares off any of the guests who tries to talk to her. Hawkeye is not too far behind with a scotch on his hand, his face pink already. They need to get out soon, because Steve knows what happens to a drunk Hawkeye and he really doesn’t want to punch his teammate in front of several important people. He takes a deep breath and clings to the champagne glass in his hand, hoping it won’t shatter.

He makes his way to Tony despite their earlier argument of ‘let me do the talking’. Yes, Steve was one hell of a leader on the field, but he was as bad as Clint when it came to social interactions. He tries to stay out of the press, and gives speeches only when he needs to. They don’t need another accident like the one where Steve threatened to sock a known politicians jaw. It had taken Tony three sleepless nights to set it right, and Steve had died from guilt.

“Gentleman, you mind if I steal Tony for a bit?” Steve asks, liking the name rolls on his tongue. Tony throws him a puzzled look. “Avenger business,” he quickly explains, and everybody nods like he just told them a secret, smiling secretively. Steve wants to punch several of them in the jaw - _the bald one had been bothering one of the ladies all night, Steve was going to show him what ‘no’ meant after the night in a dark alley-_ but he holds himself.

Tony strikes another one of his press smiles and lets Steve take him from his arm. His whole expression changes in seconds time. “What, did something happen? Is it that Micheal Keaton wannabe again? I swear to god-“

“Tony, relax. It’s nothing, you just looked like you were getting hot in there. You can’t say no to a little pause right?” Steve doesn’t tell him how selfish he is, because he just wanted him for himself right now, but he was too much of a coward to even say it. He wings it and hopes for the best.

To his luck, Tony is so tired that he doesn’t see right through the lie, and that means _a dangerous_ level of tired. “That’s… nice of you to think, actually. Yeah, that guy's… Oh god, did you see the bald one? He’s been groping this lady all night, and if I hear one more ‘come here girl’, I swear to God I’m calling the armor.”

Lots of people can’t pinpoint where they fall in love with their other half, but Steve can. It was this night.

…

Steve nearly loses it when he sees his sweatshirt on Tony.

“Sorry,” Tony apologizes, and tugs to the material. “I actually programmed Dum-E to sort through the clothes by size too, but he gets distracted easily. Probably thought it was mine since it’s red and all.”

Steve thinks he should keep the sweater, because it looks better on Tony than it’ll ever do on Steve.

…

Steve punches the mirror. More than a few times.

The feeling on his chest whenever he saw Tony was far from good, he knew, but he just couldn’t stop himself. He tried to look away, but wherever he turned to, he found a piece of Tony that just made him queasy with admiration.

He remembers Ray from downtown, and how they found him with nails in his eyes, and words carved on his face.

_Queer,_ they had said.

Steve loses his lunch to the toilet.

…

“What are we watching?” Steve asks, grabbing a handful of popcorn from Natasha’s lap. The unspoken rule of ‘popcorn shall always be on Nat’s lap’ was set early on, since their first movie night. Steve tastes the salty caramel.

“Brokeback Mountain,” Tony says, and Clint claps. “You’re gonna be in tears, Barton.”

“You’re the one who’s gonna be in tears, bitch.” Clint says playfully, and Steve mutters out a quiet ‘language’. Clint laughs and pulls the blanket closer to his face. “Can’t believe we’ve never watched a Heath Ledger with Cap before.”

“Wait, didn’t we watch The Dark Knight Rises like, ten days ago?” Bruce asks, face buried between his blanket. He usually sleeps through the movies, so it’s only natural.

“No? Oh you’re meaning the other Batman movie, not the Heath Ledger one.” Tony says, hitting play. Banner makes an agreeing sound, and signals JARVIS to put out the lights.

Tony keeps stealing glances, Steve realizes, and tries to figure out why.

He does figure it out soon enough, though.

...

Steve thinks he cannot breathe.

There were two men on the screen, kissing each other. Loving each other. And all of them had watched it.

Steve wasn’t _that_ behind on the news, and knew that the things had headed for the lot better since he went down. People could get _married_ now, which made Steve suck on his breath when he first he heard it. They did lot’s of pro LGBTQ+ campaigns as a team, and Steve was awaiting his first pride parade with excitement.

That was something else.

He was Captain America; the leader of The Avengers, a hero in many people’s eyes. He couldn’t be _queer,_ he couldn’t lose the respect he had gained from the people around the globe. He couldn’t make them think he was incapable of saving people because he…

“I’m sorry,” he wheezed, and ran to the door, ignoring the tears burning his eyes. He tried not to hear the protests he left behind.

….

“Hey, Cap,” Tony calls behind him, after couple of minutes. It took Steve a while to get his breathing in order again, but his efforts are completely destroyed when Tony sneaks up on him. The man didn’t exactly sneak up, Steve thinks, he was just out of it.

“Hey,” Steve answers, finding the strength to form words. His breath is squeaky and his stomach is still doing turns, but he tries to look strong for Tony. He can’t be the Captain of the team if he fears basic social interaction, can he? “Sorry for barging out like that earlier. I… haven’t been feeling that good. I think the curry did something.” He tries, but quickly realizes that Tony ain’t buying any of his bullshit.

“Yeah, and I was born yesterday,” the man says fondly, making his way over Steve. Steve’s breath hitches. “Well, uh, sorry. I probably shouldn’t have just dropped the movie like that on you, guess you were sensitive about that stuff in the past and all…”

Steve considers jumping from the rails; a few broken ribs seems far more pleasant than this conversation. He doesn’t jump, though. He just looks at Tony like he’s from another planet, which more or less explains Steve’s situation.

“I’m sorry,” he scrambles. That’s the best he could ever manage, anyway.

“For what?” Tony asks, confused. “I mean, I kinda chose the movie, I made you watch it and believe it or not, Caps-cream, not everything is your fault. I’m a very capable adult man, despite honeybear’s very enthusiastic words, and I can own up to my mistakes-“

“‘m in love with you.”

Everything stops for a moment, and Tony sputters, his eyebrows raised and his words shoved into his mouth.

The night grows colder around them and despite being in summer, Steve shivers.

“I’m so, so sorry, Tony.” Steve tries, and his eyes _hurting,_ because God, he tried, but he was just so tired from hiding, the lie lurking around the corners wherever he went. He didn’t want to live by his fear anymore. 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” is not the answer he would’ve expected. “I just lost to honeybear by three days. Three goddamn days.”

…

Steve learns some stuff that night.

One, what he felt wasn’t _disgusting_ or _anormal._ What he felt was _love,_ and love wasn’t disgusting. Love was beautiful, it was warm, it was _Tony._

Second, Tony is an amazing kisser.

Things escalate quickly after the conversation on the balcony. They tumble to the elevator, grinning like psychopaths, and _kiss._

Steve kisses a _man._

And he’s never been happier.

Tony’s unrelenting mouth covers his; hot and soft. Steve fumbles with it at first, but with Tony, nothing ever seems out of place; he finds his rhythm and their mouths _dance,_ making explicit sounds in the process. His hands finds Tony’s waist, but Tony directs them to his ass, making Steve gasp.

The sole reason of his morning woods is standing right there, guiding him, encouraging him, kissing him. Steve thinks this is a cruel dream.

He doesn’t want to wake up.

The doors open with a whim, and they make their way to the grand penthouse of Tony’s, the whole Manhattan beneath them, shining, glinting, shimmering. They never take their hands off each other, only stopping to let Tony breath (Steve has never thought that the enhanced lungs could work in _this_ department, but he’s not exactly complaining).

“Cap?” Tony murmurs, between kisses. “Steve.”

“Yeah?” Steve asks, scared. _Cap, let’s stop. Cap, this was a joke, nothing more. Cap, you’re hurting me. Steve, let me go, I never want to see you again, you sick bastard._

_“_ I want you to fuck me,” Tony says instead, and Steve makes a noise like he’s been punched in the gut.

“I…I can definitely do that,” he manages, and Tony smiles against his mouth, his hands set at back of Steve’s head. “But I...I don’t want to hurt you, Tony.” 

“You couldn’t even if you tried,” Tony answers, and Steve believes him.

……

Every noise he gets out of Tony goes directly into his core, feeling like a punch in the gut in a very grotesque way. He watches him; how his eyelids closes in the heat of pleasure, his moans, his every twitch and movement, how beautifully he arcs out of the bed when Steve hits his sweet spot. Steve _tries,_ he tries to get out a moan from him, smiling through the sweat when he does, he tries to make the man feel _good,_ to show him that Steve can be so good for him. Better than anyone else he had in the past. Better than all those assholes, better than all those jerks.

Tony cries out Steve’s name when he comes, brows knitted together, and Steve could come just from that.

He does.

……

“Took you long enough,” Natasha says, and Steve smiles to his coffee. Tony is asleep at his lap after a particularly long workshop binge, his brown hair sticking a bit to his face. Steve picks it up carefully, paying attention on not waking up the man, and tucks it behind his ear.

“Yeah,” he agrees.


End file.
